Sunday, April 14 is the last day of the 2023-24 NBA regular season. With less than a week remaining, there are some tight league leader races.
This is a brief look at some of the stats that are in doubt as to who will be the league leader. Who will get the bold ink on the back of their basketball card?
NBA League Leader Races Going Down to the Wire
Steals Per Game
- 1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder 2.1
- 2. De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings 2.0
An MVP candidate, Gilgeous-Alexander owns a slight lead in the battle to lead in steals. After averaging a career-high 1.6 last season, he has increased his swipes even further.
Now in his seventh season, Fox is also getting into passing lanes more frequently. Much like Gilgeous-Alexander, Fox’s career-high average in steals entering the season was 1.6.
Triple-Doubles
- 1. Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings 26
- 2. Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets 25
The favorite to win his third MVP, Jokic led the league in triple-doubles each of the last two seasons. He recorded 29 in 2022-23 and 19 in 2021-22.
Sabonis is in the middle of a historic double-double streak, but he’s been racking up triple-doubles. Nearly half of his career triple-doubles (26 of 58) have come this season.
Both the Kings and Nuggets have four games remaining.
Three-Point Percentage
- 1. Garrison Matthews, Atlanta Hawks 46.7
- 2. Grayson Allen, Phoenix Suns 46.6
- 3. Luke Kennard, Memphis Grizzlies 45.0
An extremely tight three-point accuracy race has a surprise leader. Over his first four seasons, Matthews shot 36.7% from deep, good but not great. While he’s playing just 14.5 minutes per contest, 167 of Matthews’ 195 shot attempts have been three-point tries.
Allen entered Sunday atop the leaderboard, but a 3-10 performance on threes Sunday dropped him just behind Matthews. Now in his sixth season, Allen’s previous career-best accuracy on threes was 40.9%.
Each of the last two seasons has seen Kennard lead the league in three-point percentage. Unfortunately, he is listed as out for Monday, the fourth straight game he is missing for personal reasons.
Free Throw Percentage
- 1. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors 92.4
- 2. Damian Lillard, Milwaukee Bucks 92.1
A nail-biter of a race sees two of the premier scoring point guards aiming to be the most accurate free throw shooter. Curry is attempting to lead the league in free throw accuracy for the fifth time in his career. Curry last led the league in 2017-18.
While Lillard has nearly shot at a 90% clip from the charity stripe in his 12-year career (89.7%), he has never led the league in free throw percentage.
